Chapter IV: Poverty and Renunciation
(19) Carelessness, Another harm of tongue is carelessness or inattention in words, specially when they are uttered in connection with religious affairs. The Prophet said : Let none among you say — what God wishes, and what you wish, rather say — what God wishes and then what you wish. Hazrat Ibn Abbas said : One man came to to the Prophet and said in the midst of his talk — what God wishes and you wish. The Prophet said : Have you made me equal to God ? Rather say : What the Almighty God wishes. The Prophet said : God has prohibited you to take oath by the name of your father, let him take oath in the name of God, or else let him remain silent. Hazrat Omar said :
Leave them, I did not take oath. The Prophet said : Let nobody among you say : My servant, my maid-servant, as you are all the servants of God and all your women are the maidservants of God. Rather says : Myboy, my girl, my son, my daughter. The servants and maid-servants shall not say : My Lord, rather they should say : My chief. All are the servants of God and God is your Lord. The Prophet said : Never call a great sinner — My chief, because if he becomes your chief, you will incur displeasure of your Lord. The Prophet said : He who says : I am free from Islam, he becomes as he has said. If he tells a lie, he will not be able to return to Islam safely. For this reason, the Prophet said : He who remains silent has got salvation.
(20) Questions of ordinary men about God. Another evil of tongue is the questions of the ordinary men about God, His attributes, His words and His tongue. These attributes of God are of two kinds — uncreated and created. It is the duty of ordinary men to follow what is in the Quran about commands and prohibitions. To understand the Quran is difficult to many. The Prophet said : Leave to me what I left for you, because your predecessors were destroyed because of their excessive questions and owing to actue differences with their prophets.
Give up what I prohibited you. Translate into action as far as you can what I ordered you to do. Hazrat Anas said : The people once
126 The Book of Destructive evils Vol-III